Description

If you're looking for a bike that can truly do anything, you can't get much closer than a 29er with 140mm of travel. Well, actually you can. The Fox 34 Talas 29 FIT CTD Fork with Trail adjust is the only fork for the truly do-anything bike. With travel that adjusts with the flick of a switch from 140mm (true all-mountain) to 110mm (cross-country), the Talas 29 140 takes versatility to the next level.

Fox forks have traditionally been featured packed, offering the ability to make all adjustments needed to tune the fork for any condition. The only problem was the difficulty for the average rider to make knowledgeable tweaks to the forks. High- and low-speed compression, lockout threshhold, preload, and rebound are all common adjustments, but, for the guy who wants to ride, and not relentlessly and aimlessly tune a fork, this can have a negative result on performance and user experience.

With CTD (climb, trail, descend), one lever quickly and easily switches the fork's compression to ideal settings for the task at hand. The climb setting adds plenty of low-speed compression to mitigate bobbing when standing on the pedals. Trail mode offers moderate low-speed compression to balance efficiency with optimum trail manners, and it's also independently adjustable with three settings; soft, medium, and firm. Finally the Descend setting features high- and low-speed compression for plush action on steep and aggressive sections of trail.

Another key feature to this new Fox is a redesigned spring curve for forks 130mm and above. There's now a more linear spring rate. This is achieved by using a longer negative spring and by reducing the air spring’s compression ratio. The resulting curve gives these air forks a more coil-like feel, and it also uses more of its travel because the preload won't ramp up.

More good news comes from the lowers as well, for 2013 they are now 50 grams lighter than last year's comparable model. While that may not seem significant, keep in mind dropping mass from the lowers effectively reduces un-sprung weight — which affects the amount of inertia the damper needs to control, resulting in enhanced suspension action. To drop the weight, Fox's engineers retained the Float's respected torsional stiffness by redesigning the brace, dropouts, and wall thickness.

This is also the first time Fox has offered its 34mm stanchion on a platform other than a 29er. These forks offer comparable stiffness to the 36mm forks, but weigh about a half pound less. The Fox 34 Talas 26 140 CTD FIT Fork comes in Black with the smooth and durable Kashima coating on the stanchion tubes. It's offered here with a tapered, 1.5 to 1-1/8in steerer, and a 15QR axle.

Here's what others have to say...

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I've noticed some of these Fox 34 Talas...

I've noticed some of these Fox 34 Talas 29 have Factory Series stickers and some (like this one) have a Fox Racing Shox sticker on them. Is there a difference between the two? If so, what? Is this a factory series fork? I noticed the price for this talas is cheaper than many I have found on the web and I want to be sure I am getting a quality fork. Thanks, Zack

Have an answer for elm5190493?

Excellent Ride with On-TheFly Efficiency

Familiarity:
I've put it through the wringer

FOX's CTD (Climb/Trail/Descend) damper is made for folks who value on-the-fly adjustability. If you're a "Set it and Forget it" type of rider, read no further. With CTD you can quickly switch between Climb (Static Lockout), Trail (Platform) and Descend (WFO) modes to optimize your ride according to conditions. Packing all of these features into a damper DOES negatively affect performance, the Descend mode is not as good as FOX's FLOAT damper provides.

The 34mm stanchions and 15mm QR make for a stout front end with excellent steering precision. For XC/Trail the 36mm becomes overkill. Kashima coat feels like butter right out of the box.

I've ridden this fork on technical trails in Laguna and Moab and felt the fork preformed great no matter the condition. Lots of traction and damping.

Most valuable advice? If you plan to use the CTD switch, this is a great fork. If not, buy a FLOAT. Also, be sure to check out the online manual for instructions on how to position your QR. It doesn't ship RTR.